House won’t fund opposition’s shadow cabinet

The House of Representatives is not likely to fund the “Shadow Cabinet” that opposition congressmen led by Minority Leader Ronaldo Zamora want to form to watch over President Arroyo’s Cabinet.

“They will entail expenses, and I don’t think they can expect funding from the majority,” Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez told a news forum in Quezon City yesterday.

However, he said members of the minority should seek financial assistance from their leader and Zamora’s businessman-brother Manuel.

“The Zamoras have deep pockets and they can fund an undertaking such as this,” he said.

The Zamoras are billionaires. Among other business interests, they are into mining and banking.

Suarez supported the failed bid of Cebu Rep. Pablo Garcia to replace Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. Garcia and his followers have decided to rejoin the De Venecia-led majority. As an offshoot of that decision, Suarez has regained his chairmanship of the committee on oversight.

Deputy Minority Leader Roilo Golez acknowledged in the same forum that their plan to form a Shadow Cabinet would cost them money.

“But the cost is not that huge, and most of it would be shouldered individually by members of the minority,” he said.

For instance, he said they have agreed to buy laptop computers using their own personal funds so they can exchange information and do Internet research faster.

He warned the majority that the opposition would be better prepared for committee hearings and floor debates.

“We will do our homework. We will come to the hearings and debates not to kill time or earn pogi (brownie) points but to engage members of the majority in exhaustive and intelligent discussions on issues,” he said.

Under their Shadow Cabinet plan, opposition congressmen will have their counterparts for most members of the Arroyo Cabinet.

For instance, Golez, who is formerly Mrs. Arroyo’s national security adviser, would most likely be the opposition’s counterpart of Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr., who was his colleague in the previous two Congresses. Teodoro is a former Tarlac congressman.

For agriculture, the minority plans to assign Sorsogon Rep. Salvador Escudero III, a former agriculture secretary.

Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, on the other hand, would take justice. Until his election last May, he was one of the lawyers of former President Joseph Estrada in the plunder and graft cases he is facing before the Sandiganbayan. He is a former law dean of San Sebastian College.

Baguio City Rep. Mauricio Domogan said there is no need to form a so-called Shadow Cabinet because the opposition already has the oversight function to check the abuses of Cabinet members. – With Delon Porcalla